The technology disclosed herein relates to an electric power management apparatus and an electric power management method.
In the past, electric power supply to electric power customers had been exclusively carried out by electric power companies in many countries. However, recently, the principle of competition is being introduced in the electric power industry. Participation of utilities other than electric power companies into the power retailing industry, and electricity futures trading are being realized or promoted in order to further enhance the efficiency of the electric power business and supply electric power at lower prices.
In electricity futures trading, for example, the amount of electric energy that will be required is estimated, and the electric power of the next day or 24 hours is traded in the power market. Accordingly, in order for the entities of electric power retailing and electricity futures trading to dominantly execute electric power trading and produce big profits, the forecast of electric power demand needs to be done accurately.
As a technology for forecasting electric power demand, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-18995 (Patent Document 1) discloses a total electric power demand forecasting apparatus which forecasts the total electric power demand by taking in weather variables including past temperatures and humidity and data on total electric power demand, and carrying out learning using a neural network.